Bizarrely echo-y video. He's in a cozy room at the White House. Where is that echo coming from? They needed to tweak it so it would sound right amplified outdoors — would sound like he was there. But he was so not there. And now the video with the inappropriate reverb will reverberate forever on line.

Also at the link, you can see Hillary Clinton's remarks. She's there in person, surrounded by space that makes the echo-y effect seem natural and right. And yet, she too seems wrong. Because she is not the President. We see shots of Merkel and Sarkozy, looking glum. They are the leaders of their respective countries. Why has the United States sent this woman? This woman lost the Presidency to that man who won by posing right here at the Brandenburg Gate... or no: Obama tried to pose right here at the Brandenburg Gate when he went to Berlin during the campaign, but Angela Merkel said no, and poor Mr. Obama was forced to do his Berlin-posing at the Victory Column. And now, he's here at the Gate at last, via inapt, inappropriate video through which the grim visage of Chancellor Merkel cannot stare. The German woman who opposed him will have to stare at the American woman who opposed him. Ha ha. Few would have foreseen.…

From the voice link. That room is too small to produce that much of an ambient echo. But it seems too short to be satellite echo (DC-satellite-London-satellite-DC) so it may be a VoIP artifact. Especially because it decreases as he continues to speak, which suggests that technicians noticed the problem and worked on it.

Blame the BBC for screwing it up.

But I'm a bit surprised that, when Obama is finally conforming with Althouse's desire for him to reduce his carbon footprint, and video conference instead of taking Air Force One, she's still not happy.

That quote tells you why he didn't go. Because, even though he tries to make it about him (everything is about him), he knows that it's not about him, and he won't be the center of attention.

This is bigger then him. And Reagan and Kennedy were too.

Not to mention that anything about the fall of the Berlin Wall reminds us of Reagan and Kennedy, and how small O looks compared to them. Try to imagine O standing down the commies (or anyone) and demanding that they take down that wall.

"You know, President Obama did NOT go to celebrate the fall of the Berlin Wall."

I'm sure that resonates with all the east Germans, Poles, Czechs, Hungarians. Latvians, et al. who lived under the gray and bloody thumb of communism / socialism for all those years.

If you're not German, the fall of the Berlin Wall is just one step in the end of Soviet Communism. Each country you mentioned has its own story. As I've mentioned before, Hungarians opened up their border -- the first rip of the Iron Curtain -- in August, 1989. Poles would more readily relate to the anniversary of the founding of Solidarity in September, 1980, Poland's first free Parliamentary election in mid-1989, or Lech Walesa becoming the first freely elected President of Poland, in December of 1990.

Where is that echo coming from? They needed to tweak it so it would sound right amplified outdoors — would sound like he was there.

Maybe they tweaked it for the Voice of God setting?

Re: FLS:

But I'm a bit surprised that, when Obama is finally conforming with Althouse's desire for him to reduce his carbon footprint, and video conference instead of taking Air Force One, she's still not happy.

True. But on the other hand, this is sort of a focal commemoration of the greatest victory for freedom in the past 50 years, so it's kind of a big deal. A much bigger deal than, say, pitching your hometown to the Olympic Committee.

On the other hand, though, it's not like he's phoning it in on the 50 year celebration or the centennial. It's only the 20 year celebration. So it could be worse. His decision is defensible.

I missed all the celebrations. In my cursory reading of the coverage, it seemed as though everyone was celebrating what Gorbachev and the old Soviet Union did--as if it was their idea to open the gate and tear down the wall.

Did Merkel or Sarkozy or Brown or Clinton mention anything about the perseverance of NATO and Reagan?

I love the rant at the end of your post. While on target, it seemed like your fingers couldn't quite keep up with your mind when trying to get that out. I had a mental image of Dr. Cockroach from Monster Vs Aliens typing while delivering his over-the-top mad scientist laugh.

"Ahh, the Drive-In. The quintessential American pasttime, which so befuddles and attracts foreigners about Americans. 'They don't leave their car for ANYTHING, not even to go to the pictures!'."

Really? I've never been to one, and I'm 46 years old. True, there was one in Miami when I was a kid, but by then it had become a haven for makeouts, drinking, and smoking pot, and my parents wouldn't let me near the place. It closed down some time in the 80s.

The drive-in theater is a dying institution, if it isn't already dead. Cars aren't the big comfortable homes-on-wheels that they were in the drive-in's heyday in the Fifties, and no one wants to sit with their windows open listening to a tinny speaker, trying to see a movie through the tiny windshields of their Prii and Smart Cars.

Re the shut down exhibit at Washington U: maybe it's time to start another student revolution. The YAL and other groups could stage sit-ins and take over the student union and in general make the heads of the former hippies and yippies that successfully infiltrated and now run academia explode with the irony. For some reason this time I think the National Guard won't be so eager to shoot.

Ah, it'll never happen. Conservative kids are too law-abiding. But a girl can dream.

Really? I've never been to one, and I'm 46 years old. True, there was one in Miami when I was a kid, but by then it had become a haven for makeouts, drinking, and smoking pot, and my parents wouldn't let me near the place. It closed down some time in the 80s.

Sure, it was NW Miami. I was reading about it in Cinematreasures the other day.

You could always go to the Swap-Shop Drive-In, although I wouldn't counsel you to go there without an Uzi or AK-47.

The echo was oddly appropriate. Putting aside the self-congratulatory aspect, O is spouting platitudes that, at least for him, will never translate into actions. There are walls aplenty in today's world, too, that function much like the Mauer of old. Forget what he says and just look at what he's done -- beginning with the 'apology' tour and continuing through his efforts to diss allies (mainly Israel) but win over the Russians, Iranians and other adversaries by Bush-bashing and appeasement policies. Not much in his actions that I can see about the 'advancement of freedom' or any attempt to dismantle the 'walls' that pen people in to oppressive regimes.

O seems to think that the Wall came done more or less on its own, as if those who had put it up just tired of the game. No need for the Leader of the Free World (how quaint and outdated that must sound to him) to, you know, actually lead, by adopting policies and taking actions that will turn those nice sounding platitudes about freedom into tomorrow's reality rather than just so much echo-y noise fading away on the wind.

Just saw Hilary Clinton's video at the Dept/State website. I agree, it was a good speech--far better, I think, than the President's and more gracious in acknowledging the contributions of many.

I still want to know--did anyone on this occasion recall the words, "tear down this wall"? It's like, gee, would that someone had had the vision, and made the choice, to call for it. Wouldn't it have been something if some world statesman, back in the day, had called for the wall to come down, and used his nation's might to bring that about...

I wonder if the Obama mindset of Marxist heroes thru the centuries can allow in the idea of a USSR that was truly an Evil Empire in every way. The illusion required to be a Marxist believer has to include Hope for a better day while every person in the structure of the existing society is being taken out and shot and their stuff carefully stolen by the New Rulers for the People.

fls: The Israelis offered soldiers in 1991 and again in 2003 during both Gulf wars, and for obvious reasons did so quietly. For reasons that should be equally obvious, the US declined. Same applies to Afganistan and Bosnia.

In its own region, the Israelis joined with the British and the French in Suez, but Ike and Dulles undercut that operation. Since then, the Europeans have mostly bugged out of any military role in the region (the Brits and some Eastern EU countries in Iraq being the main exception) while the Israelis have been engaged in a series of wars (usually started by others) to fend off neighbors devoted to Israel's destruction. Perhaps you've noticed. To the extent they can assist the US in the region, they do so mostly by providing intelligence, and sometimes (as Balfegor says) by doing the dirty work. That may yet happen again, with repect to the Iranian nuclear facilities.

While I would have paid no attention to President Obama's observations if not for this blog, it is interesting to compare his anoydyne remarks to Niemann's vivid take. Obama communicates big ideas with grandiose abstractions. Nieman communicates big ideas with evocative specifics. Obama talks about himself as one of those big abstract idea. Nieman talks about himself as one of us -- an individual overwhelmed by history. It is the more modest and more talented communicator who makes us amazed.

"Help me out here. Try as I might, I can't recall when Israel sent soldiers to fight alongside GIs."Is that the definition of allies? Not until both countries go to war together can they be considered allies?

How true. A truly talented speaker will stun the listener with concepts that usual don’t fully register until later. Obama’s speeches, whether by design or not, don’t seem to resonate like that behind the Hope and Change concepts from the campaign trail.

I’ve long thought that the only reason I ever thought this guy was a talented speaker was due to Bush being so, so horrible at it. Leadership is made of sterner stuff than mere oration, but President Obama seems to come up short across the sterner stuff spectrum.

The Obamites would certainly approve of Woodrow Wilson's actions, if they but recalled the history. Just to recap:

The Sedition Act of 1918 made it a crime to "utter, print, write or publish any disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language" about the United States' form of government. Punishment included up to 20 years imprisonment or death. In short, dissent under this ur-liberal President was treated like actual treason. Thousands were denounced and imprisoned. What a wet dream for today's Chicago mob.

However, I don't think Merkel would necessarily be flattered with the comparison. Wasn't that sort of thing brought to an end in her part of the world by the collapse of East Germany?

The awful echos is Obama trying to pretend that he is giving a speech in front of thousands of people at an historic commemoration, instead of just sitting around sulking in the White House because he couldn't be the center of attention.

But I'm a bit surprised that, when Obama is finally conforming with Althouse's desire for him to reduce his carbon footprint, and video conference instead of taking Air Force One, she's still not happy.

FLS: No one is saying that the President shouldn't travel and represent the United States at important events. THAT is supposed to be part of his job. The problem is that Obama and his loons that are propping him up have no sense of proportion or priorities.

Going to this event ....worthy of expending the dollars in the hopes of enhancing the prestige of the US. Especially since the US was fairly integral to the movement that cause the Berlin Wall to fall.

Spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to take your wife to a show at taxpayer expense; hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars to make yourself look like a fool trying to get some games in your cheesy home town; expensive photo ops of Air Force One strafe bombing NY City; flying in Kobe beef for dinners to pay off the people who bribed your way into office......None of these are top priorities of the people who are paying the bills. You know...the taxpayers. Those people who are being told to turn down the heat, wear sweaters, eat meatless and shut up and listen to our leaders.

Not until both countries go to war together can they be considered allies?

Traditionally, yes. Pondering the fall of the Wall had reminded me that the Soviet Union was once our ally -- that's how they ended up with East Germany, East Berlin, East Austria, East Vienna, to begin with. (Not to mention Poland, Czechoslovakia, the Baltics, the Balkans, etc. etc.)

In fact we were part of a group named "The Allies," Great Britain, France, etc. The bad guys were known as "The Axis." We fought alongside Aussies and Kiwis as part of Anzus. Later, we fought alongside Australians and South Koreans in Vietnam. Canada has been our ally for several wars, including the Cold War. Fighting together, or preparing to fight together, is what being allies is all about.

Not that McCain was a great prize, and I agree with Althouse that his dithering about the debate and first bailout bill made him look weak and unpresidential, but now I wonder if she regrets her vote. It seems like she does, or at least ought to, regret it.

I think dbq is having a Carter-era flashback -- I don't remember Obama speaking along those lines.

Come live in California where they want to remote control our thermostats, already tell us what kind of light bulbs we must use, what kind of soaps we can use and plan to tax us by the mile as we drive.

And YES I am having a Carter years flash back. I lived through those times and remember the inflation, loss of jobs, gas shortages and all the other wonderful things that Carter brought to us, including the US becoming the Butt Boys of Iran.

To you, this is all funny.....now.Obama will make us long for the Carter years.

Fighting together, or preparing to fight together, is what being allies is all about.

Well if preparing to fight together makes us allies with someone, I'm pretty sure Israel is an ally. Don't we regularly conduct joint exercises with Israel?

Re: I think dbq is having a Carter-era flashback -- I don't remember Obama speaking along those lines.

I don't know that he's specifically mentioned all those things, but he certainly has spoken along those lines:

Pitching his message to Oregon's environmentally-conscious voters, Obama called on the United States to "lead by example" on global warming, and develop new technologies at home which could be exported to developing countries.

"We can't drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times ... and then just expect that other countries are going to say OK," Obama said.

Of course, that was from back when he was a candidate, so it's pretty much empty words. People had a bit of fun with the hypocrisy when he cranked the heating in the White House way up, back in January, February, but he's sort of let that whole "environmentalist" message fall by the wayside.

Bal and AJL: if you're talking about the same thing, I read that as provoking envy -- we can't expect others not to complain if they're eating hamburger while we're eating steak. Consider how irritating it is that Al Gore's lavish lifestyle does not match his global warming preaching.

On Obama, it was probably a good time to pass on a symbolic event when he had spent his 1st year doing little but talking about what a great guy he was, hosting a beer summit, and flitting around everywhere to attend symbolic events or be on TV shows.

This weekend he was actually working trying to get something done. Now his liberal Democrat's idea Obama is pushing in long meetings in Congress is pretty bad, but at least now he is actually trying to do something besides give pretty speeches.And he was elected to do certain things Bush I was asleep at the switch on because Bush was only focused on 1-2 things.....and ignored that Reagan may have also focused on 1-2 things...but other business got attended to.

You telling me he couldn't have scheduled a very easy layover in Berlin, with all those adoring people outside of his Hotel Adlon window to give him a boost before having to tackle with the prickly Asian governments?

The Israelis have always shied away from any formal alliance with us because it would queer our relations with moderate states whose principal religion is Islam - e.g., Turkey, Indonesia, etc.

Since all that's shot to Hell, if we can ever get Barry out of the White House and Pelosi Galore out of the House, we may see Israelis and Americans (infidel Americans, of course) fighting alongside each other.

Bal and AJL: if you're talking about the same thing, I read that as provoking envy -- we can't expect others not to complain if they're eating hamburger while we're eating steak. Consider how irritating it is that Al Gore's lavish lifestyle does not match his global warming preaching.

Yes . . . but I'm pretty sure it's not Obama's suggestion that we should stop hectoring other world governments (esp. China and India) about global warming. I think he's just turning the hectoring on the US population too.

That said, though, this was just meaningless campaign rhetoric, pandering to an environmentalist crowd. The President himself doesn't seem to care a fig about that kind of thing.

Correct my history if it's wrong, but weren't a lot of the early military leaders of Israel former British soldiers?

Just plucked this off of wikipedia:

"During the Second World War, Ben-Gurion encouraged the Jews of Palestine to volunteer for the British army. He famously told Jews to "support the British as if there is no White Paper and oppose the White Paper as if there is no war".[5] About 10% of the Jewish population of Palestine volunteered for the British army, including many women."

The echo is probably a result of two different audio inputs. I'm guessing they have the direct video input, and then a microphone by the cameras to get audience noise. The problem is that the cameras are so far back it takes the video audio broadcast from the main speakers longer to get to the audience microphone than the direct video signal.

They did more than fight. those Zionists and other Jews as well served in special ops units beyond their normal share. Lots of OSS jumpers were Jewish refugees going back to the old country, knowing they faced painful deaths if caught.

Someone should start a betting pool about whether Obama will, at any given occasion, mention how historic he is because he's black (or "of muslim descent"?) and he's the President.

I'd bet already that when he accepts the Nobel Peace Prize, he won't be able to resist. "Thank you for this honor. Few would have thought a black man could be both President and a Nobel Prize winner...."

Correct my history if it's wrong, but weren't a lot of the early military leaders of Israel former British soldiers?

Just plucked this off of wikipedia:

"During the Second World War, Ben-Gurion encouraged the Jews of Palestine to volunteer for the British army. He famously told Jews to "support the British as if there is no White Paper and oppose the White Paper as if there is no war".[5] About 10% of the Jewish population of Palestine volunteered for the British army, including many women."

So, they did fight with the Allies alongside GIs

Be careful of Wiki, you'll get a lot of bad info if you don't verify the sources.

In any case, we're speaking of Palestine under the League of Nations Mandate, not Israel. The Jewish Brigade fought as part of the British Army in Northern Europe and No. 51 Commando, later known as the Special Identification Group, was composed of Arab-speaking Palestinian Jews, again serving as a British, not Israeli, unit.

They didn't serve with American units, however.

Crimso said...

Guess it depends upon how you define "reunification." Andrew Johnson was from Tennessee.

Not all Southerners supported the Confederacy and not all Northerners were Union men. John C. Pemberton, the defender of Vicksburg and later the inventor of Coca Cola, was from Philadelphia.

Johnson would have been considered a traitor in the South, but, as a Democrat, he supported the Union and ran with Lincoln on a unity ticket.

PS Grant was from Illinois, not Ohio, but he was just as bad a President (worse, actually) than the Ohioans.

"The echo is probably a result of two different audio inputs. I'm guessing they have the direct video input, and then a microphone by the cameras to get audience noise. The problem is that the cameras are so far back it takes the video audio broadcast from the main speakers longer to get to the audience microphone than the direct video signal."

It's a little like the way Tony Visconti recorded Bowie's song "Heroes", with "a system of three microphones to capture the epic vocal, with one microphone nine inches from Bowie, one 20 feet away and one 50 feet away. Only the first was opened for the quieter vocals at the start of the song, with the first and second opening on the louder passages, and all three on the loudest parts, creating progressively more reverb and ambience the louder the vocals became."

Interestingly, the song "Heroes" (the title is in quotes on the original track list and single cover) is partially about a couple kissing in front of the Berlin Wall:

I, I can rememberStanding, by the wallAnd the guns, shot above our heads And we kissed, as though nothing could fallAnd the shame, was on the other sideOh we can beat them, for ever and everThen we could be Heroes, just for one day.

I listened to "Heroes" in lieu of Obama's speech. Bowie summoned more genuine emotion singing about those fictitious lovers kissing by the Wall than Obama was able to evince speaking about that actual Wall's demise.

"Not all Southerners supported the Confederacy and not all Northerners were Union men. John C. Pemberton, the defender of Vicksburg and later the inventor of Coca Cola, was from Philadelphia."

Don't forget George Thomas!

"Johnson would have been considered a traitor in the South"

What do you mean "would have been?" Of course (as you are undoubtedly aware), East Tennessee wasn't exactly a hotbed of secessionism.

A war of very strange bedfellows (and enemies who were best friends). I've read that only twice during the war was the White House draped in mourning. The first was when little Willie Lincoln died, the second was when Brigadier General Ben Helm died. Helm was Lincoln's brother-in-law, and was killed at Chickamauga. Wearing a Confederate uniform.

salvage: And if Obama were there this post would be all about how he's taking credit for Ronald Reagan's hard work and how the President should be home dealing with the economy he ruined etc. etc.

People said that about the first Bush, so I don't think it would be partisan. Everything Obama did here was unpresidential. At least if he tried to take credit for something Reagan did, it would show that he valued what was done. Right now, I'd be happy with that.

I find it astonishing that Obama would not go to Berlin after the sacrifices that Americas made over 50 years to defeat Nazism and Communism and bring freedom to millions. I wanted our President to be there and cannot understand why he did not do so. And to spend the afternoon sitting in the Rose Garden? Could you imagine if Bush did that?

I try not to be overly critical of Obams, but he is driving me crazy with how everything is about him. What on earth does the success in German have to do with him succeeding as an African American. Even if there was some relationship, why does he, and his representative Hillary, need to to talk about it. Maddening. Especially that he seems so thrilled to always be talking about himself. Doesn't anyone ever tell him to cool it? The press has helped create a very bad president.

You have to understand, Kansas, that structural leftists believe that all societal problems are the result of racism and/or sexism, the patriarchy. They do not believe in good and evil; they do not believe in the duality of human nature. They are like children.

I still hope Obama may mature in office. His dispassionate performance today at Fort Hood today did not give me much hope though. The words but not the emotion were there. I do give him credit for the words.

Obama is such a low rent narcissist POS. If he had any class at all he would have sent Bush 41. He was the president in office at the time and his administration and the Reagan administration of which he was part of were instrumental in the downfall of those communist regimes. The fact that he wasn't there also shows how ill prepared and incompetent Hilary is as well. As always this group of communist clowns always put their egos's and petty domestic politics above the national interest.